The present invention relates to a mchine tool of the type employed to carry out machining operations on die molds to duplicate the internal, external or transverse surface contours in a master mold. More particularly, the present invention relates to such a machine tool wherein the reciprocating movement of the cutting tools is along a course of travel that is angularly adjustable with respect to the rotational axes of the die molds as well as the master mold.
In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,264,910, there is disclosed a machine tool to carry out simultaneous machining operations under the internal surfaces of die molds while movement of the cutting tools is controlled in response to an output signal from a probe after being brought into contact with the contoured surface of the master mold. As in my prior patent, the present invention, while not limited thereto, is particularly useful for constructing a duplicator apparatus which may include the use of multiple chucks each supported for rotation by a spindle. However, conventional lathes as well as the multiple spindle head assembly disclosed in the aforesaid patent suffer from the acute disadvantage that movement of the probe as well as the cutting tools during the duplication process for certain designs becomes impossible when the probe as well as the cutting tools are reciprocated parallel to the rotational axes of the master mold and die molds. The same is true when the cutting tools and a probe are horizontally moved transverse to the rotational axes of the mold dies and master mold. Thus, for example, in a master mold for glassware, distinctive and frequently very intricate designs are to be duplicated. When the master mold defines a design by projections into the cavity thereof along a conically-reduced surface or when the designs project from two abruptly-changing mold surfaces, the mold projections overlap in the plane of the probe. In other words, a probe cannot detect mold projections from one mold surface because of interference with mold projections from the immediately adjacent mold surface. The probe is constrained to move either parallel to the rotational axis of the die mold or horizontally transverse to this rotational axis.